Why Celebrities Choose Medium

Summary

Celebrities and political figures choose Medium as a platform for its wide reach, instant publishing, and non-partisan reputation, allowing them to express themselves without the biases associated with traditional media.

Abstract

The article discusses the reasons why prominent individuals, including former President Barack Obama, current President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other political figures from both liberal and conservative backgrounds, prefer to publish on Medium. The platform offers immediate publication, a broad audience, and a high Google ranking, which ensures their messages reach beyond Medium's reader base. Additionally, authors like Margaret Atwood and Susan Orlean use Medium to share thoughts and explore passions outside of their primary literary work, suggesting that the platform serves as a versatile tool for self-expression, marketing, and idea exploration for those in the public eye.

Opinions

The author admires Stacey Abrams for her intelligence and drive, considering her a role model and acknowledging her effective use of Medium.
There is a perception that Medium leans slightly liberal, yet it still attracts a diverse range of political voices, which surprises the author in some cases (e.g., Kevin McCarthy's presence).
The author is impressed by the caliber of authors on Medium, particularly Margaret Atwood, and is curious to discover more bestselling authors on the platform.
The article suggests that while Medium can be a marketing tool for authors and political candidates, it is also valued for its ability to provide a space for genuine expression and engagement with ideas.
The author concludes that the reasons celebrities and public figures write on Medium align with the broader Medium community's motivations for using the platform.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Barack Obama’s face on my Medium feed.

I read the twenty-four articles (so far) that former President Obama has written, and I wondered what it was about this venue that worked for him when he easily could have been published elsewhere. My guess is that he knows:

Articles will be published almost instantaneously

Each piece will reach a wide audience, not just Medium readers, but also [because of the incredibly high ranking Medium commands on Google] online readers everywhere.

If the story was published in a particular magazine or newspaper, too much inherent bias might be attached to that choice, and the time between submission and publication would be much longer.

Joe Biden used Medium as a platform to get his political concepts out to the public as he ran for president; he continues to put his “statements” out on several topics on this site as President. Vice President Harris is on Medium as well. She has used the opportunity to not only provide her own political statements but also as a way to push those candidates that she endorses.

I hadn’t realized that Stacey Abrams was also taking advantage of Medium until I specifically searched for her. Now, I am a devoted follower of hers. Stacey Abrams is what our family would label as “wicked smart.” Her drive and her wit are second to none, and she stands as a supreme example to all women (and men) of what an intelligent person can do if they use that wit and drive to do good. I don’t know how many times I have said the phrase “Thank God for Stacey Abrams” this year, but I think this is going to be only one of a million times that phrase will be said in the years to come.

I went down the rabbit hole to find other government leaders and political figures who have used Medium as their publication venue of choice. The list is long, and I’m sure that I’m missing many, but they include:

The Political Sphere

John Kerrey

John McCain

Bernie Sanders

Hilary Clinton

Elizabeth Warren

Al Gore

the Clinton Foundation

Cory Booker

Beto O’Rourke

Pete Buttigieg

Andrew Yang

Al Franken

Mitt Romney

Andrew Cuomo

Mike Huckabee

Marco Rubio

Nikki Haley

Kevin McCarthy

Donald Rumsfeld

I thought that maybe this platform would swing widely for liberals, and it kind of does, but there are a few conservatives here and there. As it turns out (and no big surprise here) there are more candidates on Medium when they are running for office and then their interest in writing trails off into the sunset. But I have to admit, there are some names here that come as a huge surprise to me (Kevin McCarthy? Really?).

In my early days of discovering Medium, I saw an article or two by Margaret Atwood. With the attention that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is receiving lately, it was fascinating to see Ms. Atwood writing about this, as well as writing about her interest in climate change. She tops my list of authors on Medium, but there are a few others:

The Author Sphere

Margaret Atwood

Susan Orlean

Walter Isaacson

Amanda Gorman (Poet Laureate)

Rumaan Alam

John Green

Bret Easton Ellis

Andy Weir

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

If you’ve found other bestselling authors, I would be very interested in adding them to the list. I’m actually slightly surprised that I haven’t found more famous authors, but maybe they’re just too busy writing books.

As with political candidates, authors may use Medium as another marketing tool, but I also think it’s simply a place to write their thoughts or spend some time exploring a non-fiction topic that they are passionate about.

In other words, people who might be called “celebrities” write on this platform for the same reasons we do; to express themselves, market themselves or their products, and/or explore concepts and ideas that they find interesting.

Doing this deep dive into names that we often recognize helps to solidify my reasoning for reading and writing on Medium!